Is Tiger's 'addiction' an excuse?

Can too much good sex lead one down the path to addiction?

 I’m a 20-year-old guy and the word “addiction” never comes to mind when I think about sex. How could that even be possible? Sex is a primal instinct–just like eating, sleeping and breathing. It’s what we, as members of the animal kingdom, are hardwired to do.

So we all must be innately addicted to these rudimentary needs, because most of us can’t live without them.

Tiger Woods’ first public press conference since the story of his infidelities broke a few months ago has raised some new questions concerning Tiger’s sincerity and honesty.

We recently found out that he’s been going to the Pine Grove rehab facility and seeing renowned psychologist and author, Patrick Carnes, who specializes in sexual addiction.

If sex is an inherent need, how can Woods be addicted to it? For many of us, if the opportunity presents itself, we take it. That’s no different than what Tiger did.

He just had a lot more opportunities than the average Joe.

I went looking for some experts to enlighten me on the Woods issue the other day, and I found a couple of them on the ARC campus.

First I sat down with human sexuality professor Loren Smith, who has a master’s degree in psychology, and who shares some of my views. He’s a guy.

 “Well, I just don’t believe there’s any such thing; I don’t think you can become addicted to sex,” said Smith, who’s been teaching at ARC for 34 years.

 Smith believes Tiger’s press conference was part of a public relations campaign forged by the corporations he’s involved with. It was all set up in order for them to clean up his image, and do some damage control.

Next I talked with Tori Bovard, another ARC psychology professor and chair of the psychology department. She looks at Tiger’s situation differently. She’s a female.

Bovard doesn’t know if Tiger’s sincere but definitely thinks he showed remorse at the press conference. But she doesn’t know where that remorse is coming from.

Is it because he ruined his reputation or because he’s sorry for the hurt he’s caused? Professor Bovard’s bottom line is, “You are what your actions show.”

Only time will tell for Tiger.
It’s easy for guys to empathize with Woods because if we were in his position, most of us wouldn’t be strong enough to reject that temptation.

Tiger is rich and famous. The women are beautiful and motivated. It’s easy to criticize and attack him, and we feel entitled to that because of his celebrity. But he’s only a man, and he’s subject to the same primal urges all guys struggle with.

I think it’s important to realize that Tiger Woods is a world-class athlete, and that’s precisely why we even care about him in the first place. He’s not Dr. Phil, President Obama or Jesus Christ, and he shouldn’t be held to those standards.

He may be a role model for a lot of people, but that doesn’t give us the right to demand knowledge of all his wrongdoings. We all have our demons, but Tiger has to deal with his in front of the public, in plain view of the entire world.